Naujienos

AUKSTAITIJA NATIONAL PARK COUNTS 40 YEARS

2014-06-12

Aukštaitija national park is Lithuania’s oldest national park founded in 1974 to preserve and restore the natural and cultural peculiarities of the Aukštaitija ethnocultural area and to ensure their sustainable use. It is the land of lakes which is home to 126 lakes and lakelets.

Aukštaitija national park started even earlier... 1960 saw the founding of the Ignalina landscape and the Ažvinčiai wood botanical-zoological reserves, which then became the core of the national park. On 29 March 1974, Lithuania’s first national park planning scheme was approved at the initiative of Prof Česlovas Kudaba and several other environmental opinion leaders. This day is considered the birthday of the park.

There have been disputes on the name of the national park. Because already back then there were considerations on founding other national parks, it was intended to call this one after the name of the region, i.e. Aukštaitija, but to underline the importance of the first part it was named the national park of the Lithuanian SSR. The park was renamed Aukštaitija national park after Lithuania regained independence.

The park covers an area of 40,574 ha with waters accounting for 15.5 per cent while forests for 70 per cent of the territory. Aukštaitija national park is situated on a hilly and wooded area of Eastern Lithuania, around 100 km north from Vilnius and at the intersection of three administrative districts (Ignalina, Utena and Švenčionys). It is Lithuania’s second largest national park in area. The park’s management sits in Palūšė.

Water covers as much as 15 per cent of the park’s territory. The biggest lake is Kretuonas with an area of 829 ha. Lake Tauragnas is the deepest one not only in the park but also in the whole of Lithuania (its depth is 62.5 m).

The surface of the area was shaped by glaciers that completely receded only 14,000 years ago, which is the reason for a very ragged and diverse relief. During the last glaciation, laky till elevations were formed while the Šiliniškės ridge, which marks the edge of the glacier, renders unique character to the park’s landscape and lures tourists. These travel here from around the world.

On the occasion of its anniversary Aukštaitija national park invites visitors to travel around already known and the most secret places of the park. A series of hikes, thematic tours, educational programmes and events called “The secrets of Aukštaitija national park” has been developed for the spring to autumn period.